Review: TAKE OVER AND DESTROY – Self-titled

Sludge Metal: For those who prefer the lower end of Extreme, but the higher end of quality. It’s listenable, flexible, and catchy – well, at least the way Take Over And Destroy (TOAD)performs.

Take Over And Destroy employs different technical and atmospheric elements. But, unlike Prog or Core, puts them in a blender and blasts the mix through old analog speakers into an empty club.

Andrew Leemont’s guttural, reverb-soaked vocals are clean (yeah, sounds contradictory, but he pulls it off) and demonstrative, while the rest of the band — Alex Bank Rollins (Guitar / Vocals), Derrick Davis (Guitar), Pete Porter (Bass), and Jason Tomaszewski (Drums) — backs him up like a very well-oiled garage-based machine.

There is some lovely 80’s and 90’s reminiscence in some of their chord progressions, like “Out of Frame,” which has a very heavy dose of old Split Enz-with-a-slice-of-Damned Punk and “By Knife,” which carries its own weight with great listenability.

Overall, the project, Take Over And Destroy, molds itself into a potential soundtrack for the introverted.

As for whether this would be construed as “Metal,” is debatable. The attitude and the lyrical approach certainly is useful source. But, the arrangements and the aggression lack the bone crushing, soul-stealing element that makes Metal harder than Rock. There is very little ferality. At times, it does speak to the inner beast, but it doesn’t provoke it.

Take Over and Destroy neither takes over or destroys anything, but it does make for a nice, raw listen.